A story about reconciliation - EDITORIAL

2018-09-28

resident Maithripala Sirisena underscored the efforts taken by Sri Lanka to restore democracy when he spoke at the 73rd Session of the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York, on September 25. President Sirisena probably had a spring in his step when walking to the podium to make the speech because he knows that, unlike in the past, Sri Lanka is slowly earning the respect of the international community where peace and reconciliation in the island are concerned. 

This is why he quite rightly said that the international community should view Sri Lanka from a fresh perspective. His well-thought out speech also included the statement that Sri Lanka was making efforts to consolidate peace and forging ahead in development and such efforts needed the support and the understanding of the international community. 

The past regime staunchly defended the actions of the security forces, but there have been times when the present Yahapalana Government was found wanting in speaking for the efforts taken by Government troops, in quelling a terrorist rebellion, in the midst of criticism from the international community and several rights organisations. The president’s statement that Sri Lanka wouldn’t accept interference by foreign nations in resolving its internal problems speaks well of a stance taken by a patriotic leader. 
Sirisena also spoke at the Nelson Mandela International Peace Seminar which was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He said that he wished world leaders would emulate Mandela, adding that, ‘Mandela was a world leader who showed how to use power for the benefit of the people and give it up without greed’. 

However, Back in Sri Lanka, there is some criticism that president Sirisena still enjoys unlimited powers as the Executive and backtracked on an election promise to pass more of his powers to Parliament. 
Be that as it may, what must be taken note of is that Sirisena accepted an invitation to speak at this peace seminar, largely because this year marks the centenary birth anniversary of Mandela. 

For the record, just before he was imprisoned, Mandela had said that he was even ready to die if that was needed to achieve democracy. But what was most notable in his struggle for the freedom of the black community was that Mendela forgave his detractors the moment he was released from prison. The ability to forgive is so essential when any nation takes the road to reconciliation. 

The Yahapalana regime talks at length about its reconciliation programmes. The president himself told the world out there, in New York, of how his chargers are taking efforts to consolidate media freedom, good governance and the independence of the judiciary. But like Mandela, if both parties in the Sri Lankan conflict- who tore peace in the island to shreds, took away the lives of thousands and denied wives their husbands and the children their fathers and mothers and most importantly education to students in the north and the east-don’t shelf their pride and say sorry to each other for the turmoil they caused, Sri Lanka’s reconciliation efforts would resemble a wound that has healed on top, but festers beneath. 

This is why the president said in his speech in New York that Sri Lanka has drawn much from the 30-year conflict and is making efforts to prevent such a thing from recuring. 
It must be noted that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had spoken of a chaotic world order. Guterres had said, ‘Trust on the rule-based global order and among states was at breaking point. Democratic principles are under siege”. 

As much as Sri Lanka needs the support and understanding of the international community, it doesn’t need any nation putting a spanner in the works towards the efforts taken to ensure peace and reconciliation. This is why it was vital for the president to state that Sri Lanka has no enemies and is friends with all countries. 

Overcoming the escalating Trade Deficit

By DR. C.S. WEERARATNA-September 27, 2018, 8:49 pm 

Former Professor of Agronomy, Ruhuna University, and former Professor of Soils and Water Resources, Rajarata University

(csweera@sltnet.lk)

A trade deficit typically occurs when a country does not produce enough goods for its residents. Alternatively, a deficit means that a country’s consumers are wealthy enough to purchase more goods than the country produces. When production cannot meet demand, as in Sri Lanka, imports tend to increase. Persistent trade deficits are detrimental to the country’s economy because it is financed with debt. Sri Lanka currently owes around US $ 65 billion. High Trade Deficit also tends to negatively impact employment, growth, and devaluing its currency. If we are to reduce the trade deficit so that its undesirable effects are reduced, it is essential that exports are increased and imports are reduced as much as possible.

According to Central Bank Annual reports the Trade Deficit in Sri Lanka, during the last five years, as indicated in Table 1 has continued to increase from US $ 7609 million in 2013 to US$ 9620 million in 2017. A recent Central Bank’s press release reports that the trade deficit for the first half of 2018 had widened to USD 5,709 million, as against USD 4,751 million in the first half of 2017. On that basis, the trade deficit is likely to reach USD 11,000 million this year.

See the Table 1

Increase export earnings

The dire need to increase our export earnings to meet the severe financial crisis we are facing today has been emphasized by many. As indicated in Table 1, exports since 2013 have not increased by any substantial amount in spite of an Export Development Board and numerous other authorities. Increasing exports is of paramount importance to improve our economy. It is because of the importance of increasing exports that the government brought a National Export Strategy. But what are we going to export?

Plantation Sector

Our major exports have been plantation crops tea, tuber and coconut. Around 800,000 ha are cultivated with plantation crops and this sector, in the recent past, played a very important role in increasing our exports earnings. However, as indicated in table 2, production of these major export crops do not show any substantial increase during the last five years. Tea production has been fluctuating around 300 million kg during this period and it is unlikely that tea exports will increase substantially in the near future. As indicated in Table 2, it is the same story in the rubber sector. In fact, the annual total rubber production has decreased from 130 million kg in 2013 to 83 million kg in 2017. Coconut production too has declined during the present decade. This appalling situation in the plantation sector can be attributed to many factors, but the Ministry of Plantation Industries and the relevant authorities appear to have not taken affective strategies to remedy this situation. If the productivity of this sector is raised, it would be possible to increase foreign exchange earnings. However, as it is, it is very unlikely that it would be possible to increase the production of our major plantation crop by any substantial amounts.

A large number of crops other than tea, rubber and coconut cultivated in Sri Lanka have a high potential as export crops. There are 24 agro ecological zones, each characterized by specific climate and soils. This makes it possible the cultivation of different types of crops. Among these are spice crops such as cinnamon, tuberous crops, horticultural and floricultural crops, medicinal herbs etc. which have a considerable export potential. In 2013, spice crops earned around US$ 350 million. There are many organizations such as the Ministries of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Export Development Board, Industrial Development Board etc. but, there appears to be no proper plan to increase production of these crops.

See the Table 2

Out of the 6.5 million hectares of land, around 2.0 million hectares are in the Wet Zone. About 75% of it is cultivated and most of this land is of low-productivity due to soil degradation. In the Dry Zone, out of the 4.5 million hectares only about 2 million acres are in productive use. Thus, there is a large extent of potentially cultivable land in the Dry Zone. Most of the soils in the Dry Zone are relatively more fertile than those in the Wet Zone. Non-availability of adequate rainfall during the Yala season is one of the limiting factors of crop production in the Dry Zone. However, better water management practices would reduce this limitation. Also, various major irrigation projects such as Mahaveli, Kirindioya, Muthukandiya and Inginimitiya provide irrigation to about 200,000 hectares in the Dry Zone. The recently inaugurated Moraghakanda project is expected to provide irrigation water to nearly 80,000 ha. The numerous minor irrigation projects too would increase the irrigable area in the Dry Zone. Thus, there is a considerable potential to increase the level of crop production in Sri Lanka, export of which would enable to increase exports.

Agro-Industries:

Promoting agro-industries will have a considerable positive impact on increasing exports. There is an urgent need to develop agro-industries in Sri Lanka, which will have a tremendous impact on unemployment and rural poverty. A large number of crops cultivated in Sri Lanka, including rice, have considerable potential in various agro-industries. However, only rubber, coconut and a few fruit crops are used in industries. Crops such as cassava, horticultural and floricultural crops, medicinal herbs, cane, bamboo, sunflower, castor, ayurvedic herbs, etc. have a considerable potential as export crops, but are not cultivated to any appreciable extent for want of better and improved varieties, technological know-how, relevant market information etc. Development of agro-industries will also increase export income and will have a tremendous impact on the economy of the country, and also provide employment opportunities among rural people. Private sector can be involved in such projects for which appropriate technical assistance need to be given by the relevant public organizations.

However, there appears to be no proper long-term plan to develop agro-industries, except for some ad-hoc projects. The Ministries of Industries and Agriculture should implement an effective Agro-Industrial Development Programme, in collaboration with the private sector, which undoubtedly would improve export income, employment opportunities and incomes in the rural areas.

Small and Medium Term Industries

Products of crop based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), have a high export potential and play a very important role in economic development of Sri Lanka because, they have the capacity to achieve rapid economic growth, while generating a considerable extent of employment opportunities. Promotion of SMEs would result in increasing industrial output of the country, leading to more exports. However, not much emphasis appears to have been placed on improving SMEs, except providing loans from banks. A main factor which limits the SME sector is inadequate raw materials. For example cane is not available for those in this sub-sector. It is so in most of the other sub-sectors too.

There has been rhetoric on promoting exports. It is meaningful and effective actions that are necessary. Giving talks at numerous seminars etc. will not increase exports unless there is a realistic plan implemented effectively.

Reducing Imports

While some talk about strategies to increase exports, there appears to be not much emphasis on reducing imports, which will have an appreciable impact on reducing trade deficit.

As indicated in Table 1 the imports has increased appreciably from US $ 18,000 million in the year 2013 to around US $ 21,000 million in the year 2017. Based on Central Bank reports expenditure on food and beverages in 2013 was US$ 1368 million and this has increased to US$ 1841 million in 2017. The expenditure in 2018 on food imports is likely to be even more due to the depreciation of SL rupee and drought.

Most of the food imported such as sugar, milk food, lentils, onion, maize, etc., involving US$ 1841 million, can be locally produced, thereby reducing expenditure on food imports. For example, nearly 16% of food imports is spent on importing sugar, most of which can be locally produced. Sugar production in the country has not increased by any appreciable amounts during the present decade in spite of three sugar companies, Pelwatta, Sevanagala and Hingurana and the Sugarcane Research Institute. Kanthale sugar factory remains closed over a long period, while a plan to cultivate sugarcane in Bibile remains shelved. There are crops such as coconut, kitul and palmyrah which can be used to manufacture sugar based substances such as jaggery and treacle, but there appears to be no effective strategy to promote the production of these crops.

With regard to milk production we have around 1 million cattle consisting of mostly indigenous cattle. Their productivity is low (1-3 liters/day) mainly due to the poor nature of the breeds and inadequate low quality feed supply. There appears to be no effective plan to improve the local breeds and supply of cattle feed. The dairy industry has a potential to contribute considerably to Sri Lanka’s economic development. But, instead of implementing an effective plan to develop the dairy industry in the country, the government is planning to import 20,000 cattle from New Zealand and Australia involving USD 73 million. There are reports to indicate that some of the previously imported cattle have a virus disease, and it may affect the local cattle. Importing cattle to improve the dairy industry in the country is a futile action, as importing cattle alone is not going to increase milk production in the long run, unless there is an effective programme to upgrade local cattle breeds, promote cultivation of  pasture grasses such as brachiaria, which can be grown under coconut.

Although we say that we are self-sufficient in rice ( a carbohydrate) a large amounts of wheat flour (another carbohydrate) is imported at a cost of around Rs. 45 billion. Annual wheat consumption in the country has increased from 38 kg/per person to nearly 80 kg/per person. There are many tuberous crops such as innala, sweet potato, yams which can replace a part of the wheat flour we import thereby reducing expenditure imports.

Eppawela Apatite (EA), which was discovered a few decades ago still remains partly underutilized. EA can be used to manufacture phosphate fertilizers. But, still we grind the rock and use the ground apatite as a P fertilizer, while spending millions to import Single Superphosphate and Triple Super Phosphate, which can be manufactured from EA.

The expenditure on subsidiary crops such as chillies, green gram, ground nut, potato etc, is millions of rupees. The average per hectare yields and the extent of these crops have not increased to any appreciable amount during the last decade. A few years ago, a former Minister of Agricultural Development Chamal Rajapaksa, appointed an Advisory Panel to make proposals to develop the agricultural sector so that there is a quantitative and qualitative increase in crop production at a lower cost with no damage to the environment. During the last few years numerous programmes such as "AMA', "Waga Sangramaya" and "Govi Sevana" were implemented. All these activities/programmes, appear to have not made any appreciable positive impact on the agricultural sector of the country indicated by increasing expenditure on food.

Car imports: Import of cars has increased considerably during the last few months resulting in an increase in imports expenditure. In the first half of this year 2018, import of cars has increased involving US$ 810 million. It will also cause an increase in the fuel imports which at present is around US $ 3 billion. In such a situation the government has given permits to import duty free cars which will further increase expenditure on car imports. Already, there is a huge stock of cars in the country and as a result millions of foreign exchange is blocked in the garages of car dealers. A few decades ago only those who earned foreign exchange were given permits to import cars.

Science and Technology.

Effective use of Science and Technology (S&T) would tend to reduce imports and increase exports. During the last two decades, effective use of Science and Technology (S&T) enabled most of the South and South East Asian countries to develop substantially. However, in Sri Lanka, in spite of a number of scientific organizations such as the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Fundamental Studies, The National Research Council of Sri Lanka, National Science and Technology Commission, which use a considerable amount of scarce financial resources, S&T has been used to a relatively very little extent to improve the economy of the country.

A primary objective of use of S&T in a developing country such as Sri Lanka must be to conduct appropriate studies on the critical issues and advice the authorities on relevant action to be taken. Science and Technology need to be used to utilize locally available resources. Conducting research alone will not lead to economic development, unless the technologies developed by research are made use or commercialized. Organizations such as the Industrial Development Board, the Board of Investments etc. need to coordinate with the relevant scientific organizations to attract investments on commercialization of proven technologies. Vidatha Centers have been established in many DS Divisions to commercialize S&T. Perhaps the Ministry of Technology and Research may indicate to what extent these Vidatha Centers have been effective in commercializing S&T.

Import of Fuel

The expenditure on importing petroleum is around US $ 3 billion which is about 15% of the total imports. In 2010, there was an Inter-Ministerial working committee, headed by Prof. Tissa Vitharana, the former minister of Science and Technology, on the use of bio fuel as an alternative to imported fossil fuel. Among the recommendations made by this committee were to promote the use of bi-fuel obtained from sugarcane and jetropha. A seminar on the use of bio-fuel was held in 2009 at the National Science Foundation. Several speakers at this seminar highlighted the possibility of using ethanol and jatropha as alternatives for imported petroleum. Ethanol and jetropha are used in many countries as alternatives for petrol and diesel respectively. However, the institutions responsible for S&T did not follow these recommendations, and now no one appears to be bothered on the use of bio -fuel and Jetropha as sources of fuel which has a potential to reduce our expenditure on importing fossil fuel.

In Sri Lanka, during the last two decades, perhaps a few thousands of research studies, involving billions of rupees worth of scarce resources, have been conducted. Findings of these research projects were presented at numerous conferences, seminars etc. It is important that we utilize these research findings to find solutions to the pressing problems of the country. But, there appears to be no effective system to achieve this. Instead, the authorities are concerned in conducting more and more seminars and symposia without any plan to effectively utilize the findings/conclusions.

Controlling non-essential imports and producing substitutes are essential to reduce the increasing Trade Deficit, which is likely to be around US $ 11 billion in 2018. In Sri Lanka we have been affected by persistent trade deficits over the years, but the relevant authorities appear to have miserably failed to implement effective strategies to ameliorate this situation, indicated by continuous increase of the Trade Deficit during the last few years. Strategies to reduce trade deficit would involve implementation of effective short, medium and long term plans. The responsible organizations need to discuss these issues and take appropriate action. There has been rhetoric on economic development during the last few years. It is meaningful and effective actions that are necessary.

Is it time for a rate cut?

Friday, 28 September 2018

If you look at the successful economies of our region they have followed economic policies that are diametrically the opposite of what our nation state has followed. These economies had;

1. Low nominal interest rates

2. Competitive to slightly depreciated exchange rates

3. Low government deficits

By following these policies they were able to grow their exports and build prosperity. 

We are unable to implement the preceding prescription as our Central Bank more closely represent our political classes. Former governors and governing hopefuls fill the paper with falsely-framed interpretations of the facts and the current Governor says things that he lacks the backbone to implement. 

Monetary Policy Review no. 6 of 2018 is round the corner (2 October) and it is strongly suggested that the Monetary Board unanimously consider moving towards low nominal interest rates. Even a slight reduction would be in the interests of the Central Bank. 

It must be noted that the Central Bank is moving towards inflation targeting when setting rates and the implementation is due early next year but there is nothing like the present to implement a good idea. What is being suggested would also help smoothen out the shock to the reduction in rates brought about by switching to inflation targeting. So why reduce rates now? Three reasons.

1. To be in line 

with declining 

long-term rates

Rates, inflation, prime lending rates, and Government financing costs are already on a declining long-term trajectory. Anyone saving for retirement would be well served by buying out a mix of long-term rates from the Government, a proxy State institution, or something too big to fail. 

Notably as a retail investor it is practically impossible to access the Government debt markets. This is because of the lack of integration with any accessible intermediary. More alarmingly, the DEX trading system for corporate debt is also closed to retail investors. Atrad has the inbuilt functionality to provide us access via their portal but have been prevented by regulatory diktat. 

Our Central Bank is often likened to the Catholic Church that prevented people from engaging in finance. The structuring of the micro finance bailout, wherein they guaranteed the return of the predatory lender, would also suggest that they shared an anti-minority world view. There is also no incentive to access the Government debt market as the transmission of policy to the financial sector is very slow. That is to say that lending institutions only amend their rates well after the Central Bank has changed policy.  Normal people do not hold Government debt. It is a low-paying instrument. The institutions that hold Government debt do so as they are required to do so by regulation. The chart shows the holding of Government Treasury bonds.

As can be seen by the line graph the amount of Government issuance of Treasury bonds is going down. This in conjunction with the amount of funds that by regulatory decree have to hold government funds are growing bigger. In my opinion this should then result in lower rates for Government debt. 

As there is little opportunity for me to share in the returns gained in trading in this market I lack the drive to learn about it. The Central Bank which recently claimed itself to be a knowledge society is actively preventing me from seeking this knowledge. However as seen from the data there has been a decline in rates.

2. Psychological

This rate announcement comes surrounding the buzz around the recent decline the USD/LKR exchange rate. One must admit that certainty and thereby confidence in the economy is slightly lacking. Many notable economists argue that the Central Bank could have prevented a lot of this speculation by offering government debt that guarantees a USD computed return in locally denominated currency. That is to offer the USD Treasury rate plus a risk premium paid in the equivalent LKR terms made accessible to jittery exporters.

Though the Governor has done a commendable job in terms of communication he must now also realise that his role is also motivational. The graph tracks Robert Shiller’s PE ratio. Robert Shiller, of predicting the housing bubble fame, now advises people to exit US equity markets as they are overvalued.

It has never been a better time to invest in emerging markets as the dollar is strong and those markets are currently highly undervalued. People buy shares for their earnings and the US is currently very expensive. Shiller argues that the growth in the US markets is due to ‘irrational exuberance’. This is driven by the Trump phenomenon. 

Smart money would be leaving the US economy as we speak and Sri Lanka should place itself to receive US funds when this madness eventually crashes but in the meantime it would be beneficial to maintain some level of stability. In this regard as Indrajit lacks the charisma to be a motivational speaker, he could use interest rate movements to signal confidence in the currency.

3. Because I said so

Both the Prime Minister and Mangala Samaraweera have publicly called for a reduction in interest rates. Members of the Monetary Board would be well served by heeding this call. Rates are invariably going to be lower when targeting inflation becomes the objective of monetary policy and the Central Bank has quite unequivocally stated that this will be coming in early next year. 

Rumour has it that the current Governor is not in good favour with the two powerful green members and this would be an easy olive branch to offer.

The opposite of President’s UN remark will happen: Bhikshu Forum

 

2018-09-27

Referring to the recent remark made by President Maithripala Sirisena at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the National Academic Bhikshu Forum (NABF) today said something would happen exactly to the opposite of what President Sirisena had claimed before the international community.

President Sirisena on Tuesday called on the international community to allow Sri Lankan people to solve their problems on their own as being an independent country.

NABF Convener Prof. Ven. Maduruoye Dhammissara Thera told a news conference that there was no credibility in the statements made by President Sirisena and added he had made similar claims even before which were of no use.

“President Sirisena has guaranteed us that he would not let any authority to implement laws against soldiers. However, such laws were implemented soon after President Sirisena’s guarantee of not doing so,” the Thera said.

“President Sirisena has also guaranteed that he would not proceed with the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the background has already been established to proceed with it,” the Thera added.

The Thera said accordingly something opposite would occur in future rather solving country’s problems in our own without the interference of international community as claimed by President Sirisena.

Meanwhile, the NABF urged Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to withdraw the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution by making a statement in Parliament if he was truly concerned about Buddhism.

Ven. Dhammissara Thera said the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution would be detrimental to the country if it would be implemented because it would result in promoting separatism in the country; “There is no need for a new Constitution or Amendment to the prevailing Constitution,” the Thera added. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)

Cardinal’s words and Mangala’s response

By C. A. Chandraprema-September 27, 2018, 9:00 pm 

The comments made by Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith last Sunday at the Ekala St Matthew’s church have made waves with Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Saliya Peiris criticising the Cardinal’s words and the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and several Catholic MPs in the Joint Opposition condemning Samaraweera and Peiris for taking on the Cardinal. What the Cardinal said last Sunday during a sermon delivered in Sinhala was roughly as follows.

"The latest religion in the West is the religion called human rights. Human rights were discovered only recently. It is being regarded as a wonderful new discovery which is being held aloft and we are being relentlessly lectured about it. However our people began adhering to religions centuries ago. Some people in our country talk of a secular society. Human life is not just food and drink and the pursuit of comfort. Many people in the West now regard religion as an outer garment. They use religion when it suits them but if they are required to make sacrifices, theல put religion aside. Our lives are short and if we limit it to the pursuit of pleasure we will come to an unfortunate end. If we adhere to a religion we don’t need human rights. Those who are dependent on human rights are those who have no religion. We must not be misled by these chimeras. We must look at this intelligently."

This elicited an immediate Tweet from Mangala who said rudely "the need for human rights was an outcome of the marauding religious zealots of the Inquisition and the crusades where non-believers were massacred en bloc. Pity the Cardinal always seems to get things wrong in trying to be a populist." Saliya Peiris, who is now the head of the Office of Missing Persons, also responded by Tweeting "If this report is accurate, it’s a shame the way the Cardinal downplays the importance of human rights. He seems to be absolutely ignorant of the concept of human rights. He also fails to realize that there are many people who don’t believe in religion and that religion cannot be forced on people. What a contrast to the progressive thinking of Pope Francis ..."

The Cardinal was referring to an ideology

It appears that both Minister Samaraweera and Peiris have understood the human rights referred to by the Cardinal as that involving people being assaulted and tortured while in police custody and that sort of thing. Going by the pronouncements made by the Cardinal over a period of time, it is clear that his Eminence was referring to something wider and in the sphere of ideology - the neo liberal ‘rights’ mania sweeping the West which has come to Sri Lanka as well through various NGOs.

If we take Minister Samaraweera’s comment about the human rights violations committed by the Catholic Church in the past during the Inquisition and the Crusades, Pope John Paul II made a blanket apology for all these transgressions committed in the name of God in March 2000. Pope John Paul II also admitted that church followers had ''violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples and shown contempt for their cultures and religious traditions'' And that there is ''an objective collective responsibility'' for past errors that modern Catholics should acknowledge and repent. Hence there is little point in flogging the Catholic Church for their past. The apology that Pope John Paul II made even at the risk of putting the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church and the faith of its followers at risk should be appreciated.

However what Cardinal Ranjith was referring to was not human rights related to physical violence. Nobody in his right mind would say that the Cardinal was advocating torture in police stations and that kind of thing. It was the whole ideology of neo liberal human rights and its use as a weapon of domination that he was obviously referring to. Recently, the Cardinal referred to the fact that a child could not be disciplined in school and that a new generation was growing up with no sense of discipline. He is the first VVIP in this country to refer publicly to a cancer that is eating into the very fabric of our society. It has already half destroyed the West and is now destroying countries like Sri Lanka which are not intellectually equipped to be able to resist these destructive ideological fads comings from the West. The easiest way to explain this is through the reference made by the Cardinal on an earlier occasion to the inability of school authorities to discipline students in schools.

The Cardinal heads an institution that is still on the frontlines as far as education is concerned because there are many assisted schools with Catholic priests heading them. Today, if a teacher in a school canes a student, he will be remanded and he will end up spending his life savings fighting criminal charges. This was due to changes introduced to the law during the Chandrika Kumaratunga years. This results in a situation where teachers lose the ability to control the teaching process in classrooms. Usually, this gives rise to a deterioration in educational standards within a few years. Even though it is now some time since these new ‘child rights’ laws were introduced in Sri Lanka, the reason why educational standards have not gone down as they should, is due to the private tuition culture in our country. Real learning takes place not in the schools but in the tuition classes and the latter have control over the kind of students they take into their classes, so the teaching process is not impaired. No tuition master is going to risk his reputation and a lucrative income by accommodating incorrigibles. But ordinary classroom teachers don’t have choice as to who they have in their classrooms.

In the West, thanks to ‘child rights’ the white Caucasian population are falling back and the educated professions are being taken over by migrants. There are white majority nations where in some hospitals it is difficult to find a single white skinned doctor even though there may be plenty of white skinned janitors. The educated professions are being taken over increasingly by immigrants from Asian countries like China, India and Sri Lanka. In the schools and as well as the universities the best performers are generally migrants. The white populations have been destroyed by this rights mania that they themselves unleashed on the world and are too far gone to be able to take remedial action. We can see the extent to which the white populations of Europe have lost control of their countries and their minds when they are unable to resist a migrant invasion from the Middle East and Africa. The US has temporarily escaped the slide thanks to Donald trump but Europe does not have a Trump. Britain too may escape the worst because they are leaving the European Union.

Why do homosexuals need to ape heterosexuals?

The human rights mania that Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith was referring to is really the attitude of mind of the neo-liberal/globalist camp. In the 1980s, neo-liberalism meant only an economic theory. But after the end of the cold war and with the dawn of the decade of the 1990s, when this economic theory won the ideological battle against Communism and socialism, neo liberalism began to be associated with much more than just an economic theory and assuming the proportions of a religion with a certain way of thinking about human rights, child rights, gay and lesbian rights, animal rights, the environment, and every aspect of life that one can think of. Its most salient feature is a complete loss of commonsense and the lack of a grip on reality. After winning the cold war, much like many wealthy public figures who have earned both money and fame, the West lot its senses and have been trying to promote their psychedelic imaginings and eccentricities in the rest of the world as the way forward for mankind.

After the dawn of the modern era, whatever various archaic laws may have said about ‘sodomy’, homosexuality was tolerated. People did what they liked with their same sex partners and nobody minded. Those homosexuals who stood out by trying to don women’s clothing in public may have been heckled and subject to harassment sometimes, but even that was due to hooliganism on the part of individuals and not a generalized trait in most societies. In many cultures like Sri Lanka even cross dressing homosexuals are not necessarily harassed or discriminated against except for certain natural limitations their appearance would cause. For example, no airline will employ a man in a skirt and lipstick as an air hostess.

The late Lalith Athulathmudali had a cross dresser as his personal valet. The first time I saw a bald man in a skirt and blouse offering me beer, I forgot what I was saying in mid-sentence. Unfazed, Mr. Athulathmudali waited patiently for me to resume what I was saying. Every passive homosexual in Colombo was in love with Vijaya Kumaratunga and they would attend Vijaya’s political events in groups. Nobody chased them away.

Thus on both sides of the political divide in Sri Lanka, there was no active policy of shunning or discriminating against these people. There was the tacit understanding that no man would wear women’s clothing unless there was some compelling reason to do so. Politicians in particular would not shun these cross dressing homosexuals because they are quite useful in their own way. They seem to know everybody and can get many things done in the communities they live.

While all homosexuals should be left alone to do whatever they like, one has to pose the question whether they need to marry like heterosexual couples? Heterosexual couples marry because they have children and raising the children and bequeathing property to them needs the legal framework of a family. However homosexual’s do not produce children and if one partner wants to convey property to his partner after his death, a simple last will can do the trick without a homosexual partner needing to have matrimonial property rights like heterosexual couples. This obsession with homosexual marriage with the whole panoply of dressing up as bride and groom and a priest declaring them as husband and wife with an organ playing ‘here comes the bride’ in the background is a loss of commonsense. This is obviously the kind of ‘rights’ mania that the Cardinal was referring to.

These are not harmless eccentricities either. When all those of a similar bent of mind get together in the neo-liberal camp, it becomes a totalitarian ideology that brooks no opposition. When Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith spoke of human rights as the new religion of the West, he was not far off the mark. To see what a perversion this advocacy of human rights can become, one has only to look at the various war crimes tribunals that were set up in the world starting with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The jurisprudence of all the international war crimes tribunals that were set up subsequently have been influenced and modeled on that of the ICTY. All rules of jurisprudence and evidence that have evolved over several centuries within the criminal courts systems in today’s modern democracies have been thrown overboard. The prevailing philosophy in all these war crimes tribunals is that anyone brought before them should be declared guilty at any cost.

The reason why the goings on in these war crimes tribunals have not gained much publicity is because those coming before them are hapless wretches who have fallen from grace and are from underdeveloped nations. These are the torture chambers and gulags of the neo-liberal human rights mafia. The Roman Catholic Church has realised that heinous crimes have been committed in the name of God in the past and they have tendered an unconditional apology. But the neo-liberal human rights Nazis who still wield power in the world despite their defeat in the US and partial defeat in Britain are far from repenting for the crimes they have committed in the name of human rights. Just take the case of so many Middle Eastern countries like Libya, which were laid waste in the name of democracy and human rights. Today Libya has no democracy, no human rights, and no State and nobody seems to be bothered. Beyond doubt the global neo-liberal human rights mafia is the biggest threat to mankind in this modern era. The Cardinal is absolutely right!

Megalomaniacal Megalopolises

ON THE FAST TRACK: A new 80+km rail track from Kurunegala to Habarana via Dambulla under the five-year ‘Let’s Awaken Polonnaruwa’ District Development Programme (2016-2020) – note the terminus a quo and terminus post quem – had been identified as “an essential and prominent task” by the present government. While the project expects to provide convenient transportation for people in the Eastern and North Central Provinces, it is China’s role in ‘contributing funds’ (courtesy a state press release of two years ago) to the project that has derailed at least some goodwill and raised more than some concerns in certain quarters. It remains to be seen if the project’s implementation will be interpreted as popular, populist or perhaps inevitable under another sovereign state’s strategy to bring our region under One Belt, One Road. (Image shows a Class M8 Indian locomotive from Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, on the Coastal Line near Wellawatte.

Pic courtesy: Wijith DeChickera.)

Friday, 28 September 2018


I note with interest the incumbent administration’s determination to develop our country’s rural periphery and the many paths it sees to get there. Then, as I read the related newspaper articles more closely, my active interest changes to anxious irritation. Slowly, more questions than I can possibly answer in a single sitting flash across my fevered brow…

Is an express train to Polonnaruwa the most pressing need of the hour? (Given the currency crisis, state-to-state shadows over our sovereignty, etc.)

Perhaps the powers that be don’t realise that we already have a railway line that takes the train to this cultural capital? (Except it takes you to old king Parakramabahu’s ancient domain after an annoying detour through the plebeian Maho Junction that may be entirely unnecessary to fly-by-night hidden agenda developers; who want to get their vested interests mainlined now! and get there yesterday! to secure their go-getter better tomorrows!)

Wouldn’t we do better to fast-track a tube to Talangama or metro from Maradana to Malabe or an outer city light rail from Panadura through Pelawatte to Peliyagoda, where the real rush and commuter crush is, rather than be dust under China’s wheels for the favour of a faster more costly trip to a Sirisenapura of the post 2020 future that isn’t guaranteed?

Thank the gods this government at least has its head screwed on right. And that it checked its paunchy ego and petty local electorates in at the door when it opted to serve national – and not narrowly parochial or narcissistically personal – agendas. At least that’s what I thought, not so many moons ago, when they and co barged in through the back door trumpeting Good Governance and carrying placards railing against corruption. To underline their party line as card-carrying members of genuine ‘10% off-the-top #democratic #clean corrupt republicanism’ (as usual) for those of us who swallow, not spit. We never learn, dears.

So what genius it was to translocate all efforts at Growth, Development and Progress to the North Central Province – from where, quite incidentally of course, our present Caesar (or Marius/Sulla) leftover from a previous regime we’ve never quite been able to flush out of our system, hails. So soon after the immediate past First Family focused state coffers on the Deep South, it was a stroke – of a genus less asinine than the braying of our donkey democracy – to pick Polonnaruwa as our would-be chief megalopolis of the post 2020 future.

It makes you warm to the chief megalomaniac who signed the gazette on that one – again, probably without reading the fine print; so as to be able to pass the buck lamely or gamely to our lame or game prime minister if the scheme ever backfired in the future (read: run up to the presidential poll). A premier whose chief vice is his chief virtue and most singular modus operandi too – to be content to look like a lame duck while the asses run rings around the circus that’s been in town since we decided to name things after our First Families.

(‘What mate, Band-er-nike? Banana-dike? Oh, ah, yes, okay – BIA!’)

Sorry to say that the phenomenon is not a new one in Sri Lanka. Nor is it unusual in banana republics where naming capital cities and sundry public utilities after one’s family is par for the fat-headed course.

Parakrama Samudraya, that liquid asset of our ancient kings, was rebaptised Senanayake Samudraya at the dawn of the Golden Age. Some silver-tongue orator’s family stooped to conquer foreign languages by renaming our then one-and-only international airport with a moniker containing seven syllables – or eleven, depending on how many brandy and sodas our busloads of tourists had quaffed at the, er, BIA arrivals lounge.

Not even the Olympian JR was above lofty detachment when he attempted to smuggle in an ancient citadel’s escutcheon – Sri Jayawardanapura – to closely parallel his own surname and stroke the ego of The Great Dene, by making it our administrative capital. I don’t want to get started on Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port and Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium – because if not for the false foresight of a faulty astrologer, we might have ended up with a Rajapaksa banner flying from every pennant from Beliatte to the, er, BIA.

Of course, politicians must be permitted some leeway when it comes to leveraging their family names. After all, the poor dears have such a hard time of it with their austerity measures directed at self in selflessly sparing the suffering population of Sri Lanka from further deprivation because of their self-indulgent depravation.

That Dr Harsha de Silva fellow – the Dosthara Hondahitha of contemporary idiotic (sorry, I meant to type ‘ironic’ but my finger slipped – shaking from laughter, I mean hunger, as I am) politics – has it all wrong. It is not the high net worth folks who must be asked to forego their foreign junkets or the nouveau riche splurging on the grandest luxury vehicles that must be curtailed; but rather that the Treasury must be asked to step in immediately and feed the pot bellies and potshot riddled egos of our megalomaniac megalopolis builders. Oh wait, all 225 MPs have already voted for a raise and arrears to be paid in full, to boot… guess Hypocrisy can still preach Austerity to us idiots, eh? HA, Harsha!

Where was I? Oh, yes. Got sidetracked a tad there then. That new express railway line to Polonnaruwa will probably never be named Maithripala Sirisena Maha Dumriya Sewaya or any such thing. But it might as well be. Because we all know that there’s a crying need to revive the dying popularity of ‘common candidates’ turning in a ‘common’ enough mandate as a one-time president – and still hoping for a second term… like the Mattala Megalomaniacs before him.

Still, that’s no skin off my back – a self-confessed trainspotter and railway traveller who’d sooner get to our Cultural Triangle on board a shiny sleek Indian locomotive (OK: Indian Alco, no? so grimy, smoky, loco…) than later. However, I draw the line when it comes at the cost of a ginormous loan – yes, another – from our generous friends in the East… Especially when it comes snapping on the heels of the Hambantota Port imbroglio and our Finance Ministry’s shenanigan ridden avowal not to take hard loans from Exim Bank again. Well, at least in the future. Or until the fuss had died down!

However, when it comes to throwing what seems like good money after bad, Sri Lanka may not have much of a choice vis-à-vis Chinese largesse (read Belt and Road Initiative or Maritime Silk Road or Militarisation of String of Pearls Ports or what have you). Those mandarins at the defence ministries of two subcontinental nations and their apologists in the ministries’ propaganda units might talk through their hats about joint Indo-SL ‘training manouevres’ in the Indian Ocean being ‘tactical’ and ‘strategic’; but leave it to fake news to underline what’s obvious.

Therefore, maybe the likes of me and other ranters on social media would do well to cut Maithri and Mahinda and all the other alleged auto-naming self-aggrandising Megalopolitical Megalomaniacs (MMs) some slack? It’s only China’s burgeoning regional military ambitions that are driving the locomotive of Lankan development off the rails – right?

Harsha, though, might consider asking his political bedfellows to tighten their belts before thumping rupee-concerned austerity drives. While it may make good financial sense, the only high net worth individuals who really need to cut back are not MMs but MPs and Ministers and other Mandarins – and not the eastern variety, either!

(Journalist | Editor-at-large of LMD | Writer #SpeakingTruthToPower)

PBJ VIOLATed PROCEDURE - Finance Head

SriLankan Airlines COMMISSION OF INQUIRY:

ISSUED Rs 14 BN worth TREASURY BONDS:

Kamani Alwis-Friday, September 28, 2018

Former Treasury Secretary Dr.P.B. Jayasundera had issued treasury bonds worth Rs.14 billion to SriLankan Airlines in 2012 without following proper procedure, SriLankan Airlines Finance Head Yasantha Dissanayake stated.

He was testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing irregularities at SriLankan airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka yesterday.

Although funds had been approved for the airline by the Cabinet and Parliament, Dr.Jayasundera instead had issued treasury bonds to the airlines, he added.

Cross examined by Additional Solicitor General Neil Unamboowe PC, Dissanayake said Dr.Jayasundera had directed not to sell or use bonds as a guarantee to obtain funds but had issued a Treasury Guarantee for SriLankan Airlines to obtain a US$ 175 million loan from the Dubai based Mashreq Bank.

Dissanayake said that when the airline sought permission to obtain loans from NDB Investment Bank and Singapore based Barclays Bank, Dr.Jayasundera had refused the request. He later had given the Treasury Guarantee and instructed to obtain the loan from Mashreq Bank.

Dissanayake further said the Cabinet had approved a US$ 500 million capital infusion earlier and in the 2011 budget,a further Rs.10,000 million for the airline, but at no instance had mentioned about providing the airline with treasury bonds instead of funds.

Dissanayake said the airline had not received these approved funds and as the financial situation of the national carrier got worse he and senior officials had met Dr.Jayasundera to discuss the matter. He said several other senior officials of the CBSL too were present at the discussions in addition to Dr.Jayasundera.

During discussions Dr.Jayasundera had said that he would provide treasury bonds instead of monies. According to Dissanayake, SriLankan officials had met Dr.Jayasundera on three other occasions after that to discuss the matter.

Later, when the airline proposed to obtain a loan from either the above mentioned local bank or the Singapore based bank, Dr.Jayasundera had refused both and instead had given a treasury guarantee to obtain the loan from the Mashreq Bank he added.

Dissanayake said he was accompanied by SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe, CEO Kapila Chandarsena, Director Susantha Ratnayake, W.A.Nalini from the Bank of Ceylon for the discussion held with Dr.Jayasundera on February 13, 2012.

Karannagoda’s Ex-Secy points finger at him

By Kavindya Perera- SEP 27 2018

Former Secretary to the then Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, has held him and Lt. Commander Sumith Ranasinghe accountable if 11 children had gone missing after being abducted.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday (26), informed Colombo Fort Acting Magistrate Deemani Baddewela that Rear Admiral Shamal Fernando, the former Secretary to former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, had given them a statement to the effect.
The CID told the Court that Rear Admiral Fernando had functioned as the Secretary to 10 Navy Commanders and that at the time of the said incident he had been operating as the Secretary to Admiral Karannagoda.

The CID told the Court that Fernando had told them that he was unaware of the incident and that he had not given any statement opposed to the Sri Lanka Navy and currently he was retired and hence he was giving this statement again.

The prosecution making further submissions said that they were seeking to summon Chief of Defence Staff Ravindra Wijeguneratne to the CID to record a statement from him shortly in connection with the allegation levelled at him of having facilitated the departure from the country of the chief suspect in the case, former Navy Lieutenant Commandeer Prasad Hettiarachchi.

The CID informed Acting Magistrate Baddewela that they were yet continuing to inquire into the National Identity Card and the Passport obtained by suspect Hettiarachchi using a fake name Polwatta Gallage Ashoka.

The CID told the Court that investigations had revealed that the suspect had received support towards that end from the Department of Immigration and Emigration and the Department of the Registration of Persons.

They informed the Court that their investigators had also identified a three-wheeler driver at Lotus Road in Colombo who had prepared the visa documents for the suspect to leave for Malaysia and noted that further inquiries in this regard were yet proceeding. The CID informed the Magistrate that the perusal of bank accounts in relation to the allegation of Wijeguneratne having provided suspect Hettiatrachchi a sum of Rs 500,000 to hide, had revealed that the said account had been maintained as a dual account under the names of Wijeguneratne and his Secretary, during his tenure as the Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Udaya Hettiarachchi.

The prosecution informed the Court that investigations had revealed details regarding another account and those inquiries were also still continuing.

Taking the submissions into consideration, Acting Magistrate Baddewela ordered the chief suspect in the case, Hettiarachchi aka Navy Sampath to be further remanded till 10 October.

Theoretical Model Of Rajapaksa Populism By Kumar David: Critical Commentary

By Siri Gamage –SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Dr. Siri Gamage

Kumar David’s delineation of this subject (Colombo Telegraph 23 September 2018) deserves some comment/response as his analysis as well as recommendation for left unity plus alliance with some liberals pose serious questions in terms of the political trajectory in the near future. After writing about what’s happening around the world in terms of neo populism, he focuses on the Rajapaksa populism. He says, ‘in the case of Rajapaksa Populism (RP), the strands that intertwine and converge to a focus are; “the proposed separatist constitution”, “the betrayal of war-heroes”, “sacrilegious persecution and imprisonment of Buddhist monks” and “lurking terrorism in the North”. Intertwined they evoke a single vision; bigotry on which masses feed and politicians breed’. He further writes that ‘In the eyes of the adoring masses Rajapaksa is socialist, anti-imperialist and authentically nationalist; the government is capitalist and pro-Western. That Lanka’s elite and the UNP leaders communicate in English while the JO and Rajapaksa clansmen, with few exceptions, struggle to do so, settles it emotionally’. Furthermore, ‘Rajapaksa Populism is intrinsically hostile to internationalism and its institutions’.

Material Basis of Ideologies

Ideologies arise from dialectical material conditions in societies, class contradictions and deprivations, existential challenges. They are articulated by leaders in terms of language and categories easily understood by their followers. However, we need to recognise that ideologies emerge from material contexts and structural contradictions prevailing in a given society.

In my view, it is far more important to understand what gives rise to Rajapaksa Populism under the conditions of current global economy, polity and the unequal relations of production and exchange that have been created by the new economy in the country. Though Kumar has been reluctant to use class analysis for this purpose, there is no way that a deep analysis of ideology can be conducted without looking at class formation and class relations arising from the emerging and new enterprises, state-market relations, local-global networks in terms of labour, capital and communication (to use a suggestion by Sujata Patel) in our cities and countryside as well as the declining share of agriculture compared to the rest of economy. Otherwise, we fall into the trap of not only using political rhetoric as substance but inadvertently consuming them also.

Though essential, Kumar does not look at the material basis including class contradictions arising from the expanding neoliberal, free market economic policies of the government for Rajapaksha populism. Without analysing this basis, it is not possible to engage in sound and valid analysis of ideology merely looking at political rhetoric and key ideas embodied in the Rajapaksa project as listed by him. Analysis of an ideology like Rajapaksa populism and its similarities to populisms elsewhere in the world-though good for a start of a discussion- remains abstract and remote from what is happening materially on the ground or at the base. To use a Marxist term, such analysis remains at the ‘super structure’ level rather than ‘infrastructure level’. A question arising from such analysis is whether ideology (set of ideas) can be analysed by using selected components of ideology alone?

Material Deprivations, Classes and Class Analysis

In this context, we need to analyse how the economic and social disparities created by the new economy – based on information and service provision; privatisation of key sectors such as education, health, communication, energy; loss of traditional livelihood methods; mega projects and their impact on communities, and internationalised operations of capital accumulating ventures in tourism, trade, supermarkets, increased taxes; rising costs of living give rise to severe competition among classes and class fractions while creating collective frustrations among those at the bottom and middle of class hierarchy? 

In the case of the middle class, its two layers (upper and lower) seem to be struggling to move forward and fulfil personal and family aspirations even though a fraction seems to be able to access better incomes, services and consumer goods. This fraction-young and stable- seem to visit supermarkets in cars with their kids, undertake foreign tours, send children to international schools and entertain themselves. However, contrary to the rhetoric of some leaders, the majority of those in the middle class (both vernacular and Western-oriented) seem to struggle without being able to be absorbed by the new economy in their and their children’s case or being able to connect with the services available from local and foreign companies in areas of human need. This sort of unequal material conditions give rise to a situation where those suffering look for economic, political, religious and symbolic alternatives including a charismatic saviour or a messiah gifted with supernatural powers. 

Read More

Playing politics with security 

 2018-09-28

This is an amazing country where people play politics with the safety and security of political and military leaders, despite some of them being possible targets of remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- the outfit that suffered a humiliating defeat nine years ago in the three-decade-long war with the armed forces.   
This divisive, malicious and irresponsible attitude on the part of ruling parties as well as the opposition has been witnessed for the past three decades, despite two key former military leaders having been killed by LTTE suicide bombers purely due to this detestable attitude of the leaders of 
successive governments.   

The situation is so amazing that even the allegation of a plot to assassinate the President and a former high-profile military official seems to have been taken lightly by those concerned. At a time when the former head of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), DIG Nalaka de Silva is accused of having conspired to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, IGP Pujith Jayasundara has reportedly gone to the Kelaniya Rajamaha Viharaya with the same TID chief. And it is further astonishing to hear Minister Rajitha Senaratne justifying it.   
The allegation has been levelled by Namal Kumara, a police informant and the Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Movement which we never heard of before. And now, an Indian who was arrested when he visited Namal Kumara has told the police that there had been a plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and the entire Rajapaksa family. If the allegations merit investigation, as the authorities have already initiated one, and if government leaders are serious about the probe, due precautionary measures have to be taken with regard to the security of the people targeted by purported conspirators. However, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said he had not been provided with any additional security.   

"SF’s contribution to war victory belittled and security detail reduced from 600 to 6 soldiers overnight when he challenged MR at 2010 Presidential polls"

Meanwhile, responding to a demand made by the joint opposition that security provided for Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be beefed up in the wake of such an alleged conspiracy, Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka --who as the former Army Commander worked hand in hand with Mr. Rajapaksa towards the decimation of the LTTE leadership -- says Mr. Rajapaksa had been given 25 STF personnel and that he did not deserve any more security.   

This is nothing but pure malice and hatred on the part of the former Army Commander, in spite of him having been treated with the same hatred and malice by the Rajapaksas during the last regime. On the other hand, members of the joint opposition argue that Gota’s security must be further tightened considering the role he played in defeating the LTTE. Security is not a matter of gratitude. Even if the life of an ordinary person who had not contributed to the war victory is threatened, measures should be taken by the government to protect him or her. Needless to say that the government must provide the former Defence Secretary with adequate protection if his life seems to have been threatened.   

Mr. Fonseka is apparently in a course of tit-for-tat for what the Rajapaksas did to him when he fell out with them after the end of the war. Once in 2009, Gota described Fonseka as the best Army Commander in the world and claimed that “the Army Commander used tactics and strategies against the LTTE to which Prabhakaran could not figure out how to react.” But Fonseka’s contribution to war victory was belittled and his security detail reduced from 600 to 6 soldiers overnight when he politically-challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 Presidential election. He was incarcerated; he was deprived of even his medals and pension. Yet, that cannot be a reason for Gota being deprived of due protection as a citizen of the country, leave alone being the war-time Defence Secretary.   

However, in Sri Lanka, it was always party politics and not real security threat assessments that had been the criterion for the strength of security provided for various persons, especially politicians. Three classic cases in point were the withdrawal of security provided for three war veterans including Fonseka, who were in the forefront of fighting the northern war and the 
southern insurgency.   

Despite repeated requests for adequate security, the People’s Alliance (PA) Government of Chandrika Kumaratunga weakened the security provided to retired Major General Lucky Algama in the late 1990s when he teamed up with the UNP to contest the 2000 Parliamentary election. He along with 10 people was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber at an election rally in Ja-Ela on December 18, 1999, one day prior to Kumaratunga herself being targeted by another suicide bomber at the Colombo Town Hall ground.   

Major General Janaka Perera, another high-ranking army official who earned the wrath of both southern and northern rebels, had to go to the Supreme Court requesting adequate security as his security was reduced by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government after he joined the UNP upon retirement. He too was killed along with another 26 persons including his wife by an LTTE suicide bomber on October 6, 2008, at a party office in Anuradhapura.   

"JO argues Gota’s security should be beefed up considering the role he played in defeating the LTTE"

The Rajapaksas might have weakened the security of their political foes and opened the door for the LTTE to kill them. Moreover, the Rajapaksas are accused of killing Welikada Prison inmates in 2012 and demonstrators at Rathupaswala, Chilaw and Katunayake, white van abductions, attacks on journalists and media institutions. But that does not justify, in any way, a repetition by this government which pledged to be different from the 
Rajapaksa regime.   

As an organisation, the LTTE is no more, but its trained cadres are still at large and the influence of its ideology is so increasingly-evident among the Tamil community that the leaders of Tamil political parties use it as a vote-pulling leverage. During the Northern Provincial Council election in 2013, C.V. Wigneswaran as TNA’s Chief Ministerial candidate glorified LTTE leader Prabhakaran as a freedom fighter.   

And three attempts to revive the LTTE have been revealed so far since the organisation was militarily defeated in May 2009 and in one such incident, three former LTTE operatives were shot dead by the military in April 2014. The thunderous ovation former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran received when she said at a meeting in July that “our dream is to revive the LTTE” indicates the degree of the LTTE ideology that persists among the Tamils or a section of them. It is with great reverence that people commemorated Thileepan, the onetime Jaffna commander of the LTTE who died after a 12-day fast over five demands in 1987.   

"Rajapaksas accused of killing Welikada Prison inmates in 2012 and demonstrators at Rathupaswala, Chilaw and Katunayake, white van abductions, attacks on journalists and media institutions"

One should not forget that Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa are two men most hated by LTTE remnants. One cannot expect that hate to vanish into thin air just because the LTTE leadership was decimated. We should recall how a convict of the Manamperi rape and murder case in 1971 was stabbed to death during the JVP’s second insurrection, seventeen years after the incident, even after he had completed his jail term for the crime. Hence, the security of Gotabaya Rajapaksa or any other individual -- especially those purportedly targeted by the alleged coup -- should not be a political issue for the ruling party or the opposition.